Editorial: Bridge closure works to firefighters' advantage

Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge

The old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," is meant to be optimistic. It's about turning a bad situation into something positive.

That's exactly what the Green Bay Metro Fire Department is doing today and early next week, when it will be using the Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge for training.

The bridge has been out of commission since Sept. 25 after the pavement sagged about 2 feet across all lanes of traffic on the east side of the river.

So the fire department will take advantage of the situation and the lack of traffic to practice getting a water supply to the top of the bridge.

The department conducted the same training last year, though on the east side of the bridge, above North Quincy Street. One of the lanes of traffic was closed, Lt. Nick Craig said, but there were still vehicles using the bridge, thus creating a danger to both drivers and firefighters.

This year, the department approached the state Department of Transportation and asked if it would be possible to do the training now, on the opposite side of the river from where the bridge repairs are being done.

Craig said fire crews will have a ladder truck and a fire engine below the bridge at a hydrant on Bylsby Avenue. The engine will connect to the hydrant and then to the ladder truck. The ladder will extend up to the bridge and the water will run through a pipe that's part of the ladder. A fire engine on the bridge will hook into the piping on the ladder, providing crews up there with a water supply.

The training is necessary because the "placement of the ladder is extremely critical," Craig said. If it's off by a foot or two, the ladder won't reach the top of the bridge, he said.

The impetus for this training was a March 1990 multi-vehicle crash in which a tanker truck overturned on the bridge and caught fire. About 50 vehicles were involved in the foggy, chain reaction crash and three people were killed.

In 2009, this method for dousing fires on the bridge was used when a semitrailer rear-ended a mobile crane and burst into flames. Firefighters got water from a ladder truck hooked to a hydrant below the bridge, on Bylsby Avenue.

Doing the training now, when there's no traffic to contend with, is a good move by the fire department. It saves drivers traffic flow hassles and protects fire crews from the potential distracted driver.

It also utilizes a bridge for something more than a landmark, which has been its main use since the end of September.

So if you see a fire engine and a crew on the bridge today, it's not an emergency. It's the fire department preparing for one.

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Editorial: Bridge closure works to firefighters' advantage

The old saying, 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,' is meant to be optimistic. It's about turning a bad situation into something positive.

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